The Philippe Back Report

Belgium is without a federal government since … well, longer than anybody would dare to say it. It is insane. It starts looking like Israel and Palestine when it comes to coming to agreements.

One is to wonder why they can’t agree on how to sort out issues for such a small place. Belgium is smaller and much less complex than, say, larger San Francisco. Or New York.

Being living here, and my core business being helping organizations and individuals to improve their performance, I am appalled by the current state of affairs.

Isn’t there anyone there having read things like “Getting to Yes” of Fischer for example? There is no long term view, everyone looks like it painted itself in a corner and can’t exit by fear of either ego bruises or depleasing its constituency of voters.

That’s not what statemen do, that’s not what a society is to be in the first place. A society is there so that it brings more benefits than trouble by working together. It seems to be the contrary now. Established perks abound, an entitlement mentality is encroached. And with the debt burden, we are heading more and more to the status of a “tax base” instead of citizens with a brain.

You don’t get anywhere with views like that. Or more precisely you end up in hell. We are in times of turmoil financially speaking, capital flows are rushing around the planet (look at the CHF of late, who ended up pegged with the EUR at around EUR 0.83 because it became a safe haven for a while). So, we need someone at the helm. In Rome in cases like that, they put a dictator to end the cacophony.

We aren’t in Rome anymore but we may end up their way, with massive devaluations and bad vibes.

On a country as small as Belgium, do we ever think of being meaningful in any way on the financial checkerboard? We are going to be tossed around. People in the know do not even list Belgium in the list of countries that could make it. Get someone at the helm and fast.

Again, this is a typical case of looking at one’s own navel and gazing into it to death when the house is burning. A state of collective political denial that must be escaped. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

So, to get out of this mess, there are priorities. And so far, what is discussed in the proposals is not about priorities, it is about minor points that render everyone sick. This is akin to a dysfunctional family full of severe narcissic pathological cases. You can’t get anywhere until you have sane people aboard. But you can’t because they locked the door from the inside, put the house on fire, and started looking to their own navels while chanting their own gospel. So, let they burn down to the ground and start anew.

There are tons of sane people around. Get some of them in charge. Get leaders of socio economic areas in charge, get leaders in social and cultural affairs in charge. The education on financial matters looks like abysmal to me. I am quite unsure if politicians can make sense of a balance sheet and an ROI statement.

Is there any case of statement of objectives for all this? Currently, I do see none. I see lots of proposals, actions, and other gestures that are all hiding the truth: that there are no agreed upon objectives. It is fire fire fire without any aim, not to mention Think!

And measurements on how we do progress on objectives. Again: nothing, for heaven’s sake. No a single measurement. Maybe there are things from each constituency, but no externally visible thing for the citizens. Who do they think they are going to fool? They are sliding into irrelevancy. Soon enough, we’ll see a takeover by FX-loaded countries. Why not seeing China buying all debt and imposing a smarter policy centered on growth. They could do it. It would rig the game into another direction for once. Maybe will it be a wakeup call.

On the added value for us, the people: well, inflationary measures, an image down the drain, and a mood that isn’t that positive isn’t going to propel us to the pinnacle of bliss for  sure. Even if we do have very competitive assets in form of brainware, will to get things done and general smarts. The best are escaping to other countries who are decided to fight. We are bleeding talent. That’s a disaster.

So, we need to get these objectives, measurements, and added value items listed and acted upon. Is it so hard to see what is the common good? We want peace, we want prosperity, we want decent security, we want to be doing business in a supporting ecosystem, we want to behave like humans do, helping the poor and the unlucky. And we want to reduce stupidity levels around.

That last bit isn’t going to be easy. But it is not because a fight can’t be won right away that one’s must refrain from trying. You never know, you may get lucky.

The Digital Innovation Platform

We need to change the mindset towards innovation: make it cool, make it accessible.

Enable open social networks about that.

But talk is cheap. Let’s get real. With real products.

Think-Do-change

Think=share resources

Do=talk about it-pitch ideas

So that peers can give feedback and make the idea grow.

Change=build

Through closed workspaces. On the web.

Get in touch with mentors. And with … Money!

Good but today, this is not live yet. (and from what I saw just a Ning.com community)

The community is wired with twitter, fb, and linked in.

The next European innovation 2.0 tool.

There is a need for a lot of feedback.

The innovation dream in Europe: being able to achieve things that have not been done anywhere else in the world.

Potential for quantum computing is going to change computing. I would say spintronics but who am I hey!

Over qualified people not finding a job up to their talent.

Root of the issue?

Europe is currently losing ground against competition. There is an emergency here.

Innovation affects all of us.

To address this:

First innovation is not research. Entrepreneurship is not innovation.

Innovation is connected to both but is on it’s own.

Shared risk. Since putting more money down the tubes isn’t going to help.

Society that supports individuals wanting to take risks.

But how?

By improving access to innovation.

Today: to fuzzy.

By providing facilities

By enhancing our participation.

By removing barriers.

We aren’t there yet!!,!

Think – Do – Change loop.

The eyif process looks like a funnel.

From idea to help to reality.

So, the digital innovation platform is there to help.

I was having a look at some videos on the real estate bubble (this one went bust in the western countries and will do the same in Asia soon enough) and moved into the monetary base expansion of the US. Well, quite impressive, to say the least.

Printing paper is cheap and moves debt burden down for government. But at the same time, it reduces the value of one’s savings to nil and gets your work for about free. Talk about being competitive by lowering your population worth.

That’s what QE and QE2 did to US people and in Europe we see more or less the same, but somewhat more hidden with the actions of the BCE and the credit given to Greece, Ireland, and soon enough, Portugal.

Keep my end of April target date for Spain in mind. June will really be the fireworks time.

It will really be time to enjoy the summer then and not worry too much about the future. In the video: we see Mike and our dear Mogambo Guru (he’s too funny even if he overdoes everything [FEIHOE!]) telling us about his views and … well, I’ve got to say that he is very, very right.

What’s the point of this post when it comes to improving your way of working? Well, three things. Yep, three things:

1. Do not trust our government to save the day, they are clueless and the sheer scale of the problem eludes them. Take action to safeguard your assets
2. Take preemptive action when it comes to commodities. If you have money to invest, do it now, do it there. It will soon be too late. Being late to the party is just that: you are left with the leftovers. And more often than not, they taste bad.
3. Grow your skillbase so that you can provide efficient delivery. Noboby will pass on talent. And talent is not falling down the sky. Talent is hard work, talent is focus. And talent turns into money. Talent is a store of value. And you can take your brain and knowledge wherever you want to. There is always a place in the world that will be willing to invest in dealing with you, given the incredible ROI that you’ll get them.

We are going to live very interesting times indeed!

A new report by Marting Armstrong is out: How and When.

The outlook for gold is nice even if the global outlook is quite gloomy on the short term.

But the system will have to be purged of that madness of cash and bad credit. Until then, hedge a bit against government short term vision (read: the next election) and think for yourself.

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to participate in the 100 Patrons pour 100 Jobs event.

I was one of the “Patrons”. Well, this translates into “boss”, GM, CEO, you name it. Top brass over there, interesting.

It was interesting to see people coming at the appointments (some no shows, but more additions than now shows, so my schedule was pretty much packed). Diverse, ranging from 23 year old freshmen, up to 58 old timer. Men and women. Great.

The concept is a “Business Speed Coaching” and may lead to hires if there is a match. Given my business model, it was more about finding interesting profiles so that I could route talent to the right targets.

Anyway, I asked people some questions, among which: “How would be someone hiring you better off?”. I would have thought that people would come up with answers. Which most of them didn’t. Wow, most people searching for a job or a career switch do not have a clue about how the company possibly hiring them would be better off with them at their side!

People focus on what they can do, as tasks and activities, not how they can contribute to goals (exception: one person was aware, and I think that I’ll recommend her to my good friends looking for a real HR (read: talent centered) pro).

I kept on asking that and also “What are your key values and strengths?” as well as “Where do you see yourself using these for great results?” Interestingly, most people didn’t even looked at themselves that way. Quite a number of them got some lights coming up in their eyes after having gone through the exercise. One was even jumping around in excitation.

This was cool. And a good half day for me, and – one’s hopes – a good day for the visitors as well.

Advice: find your strengths and build from there. Don’t care about your limitations, it is not by fighting them that you can win. It is by leveraging your strengths and passion.

Some pics with me on it: